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No-Churn Red Wine Ice Cream + Winner!

Do I have a treat for you in the form of no-churn, 5-ingredient red wine ice cream! But first, congratulations to Aaron (a_m_a_r_t_i_n on Instagram) for winning the Intensity Academy Saucy Pack giveaway! Aaron, look out for an email about choosing your sauces!

Also, if you enjoyed that giveaway, keep your eyes open! Next week is #AppleWeek, and I’m working with dozens of other bloggers to bring you over a hundred apple-related recipes, and FIVE giveaway prize packs! Watch this space 😀

No-Churn Red Wine Ice Cream

There are a few ways to do no-churn ice cream (Serious Eats advocates using ice cube trays). The secret weapon to this recipe is the sweetened condensed milk. It has sugar and a high fat concentration, which gives that lovely creamy texture without a lot of effort (no ice cube trays needed!).

What wine should I use?

I used Bodegas Breca Red, which is a Spanish garnacha (retails for $15-18). Garnacha (also known as grenanche) tends to be intense and higher in alcohol, with flavors of dark fruit and spice.

Robby recommends any wine that is fruit-forward. I asked Robby about the difference between “fruity” and “fruit-forward” and the answer is: nothing, except perception. “Fruity” often makes people think “fruity and sweet.” What we mean by “fruit-forward” is “has aromas and flavors of fruit but may not be sweet.” The wine doesn’t need to be sweet for this because the sweetened condensed milk has that covered.

Note on the other ingredients

All your ingredients should be cold, if possible, but especially the heavy cream. Cream whips best if you leave it as cold as possible for as long as possible. Some people even put their bowl and beaters in the fridge, although I’ve not found that necessary.

Exactly how boozy will this be?

It will smell pretty boozy! Because the wine goes in straight, all of the alcohol is still in there, so it has a distinct red wine scent and flavor. But since the whole batch of ice cream has less than two glasses of wine, it’s not actually very strong.

If you want it less boozy, start with 1 1/2 cups of wine. Simmer it gently until it gets down to 1 cup; then let cool and use per the recipe. That cooks out the alcohol while leaving a nice intense flavor.

Can I do this with things that aren’t wine?

Sure! Just bear in mind that if you use, say, bourbon, you’ll need to scale the amount of liquid way back (at a guess, 1/2 cup or less), or the higher alcohol content will keep the ice cream from freezing.

You’ll also want to consider the vanilla extract and chocolate shavings. If you plan to use a liquid that doesn’t go with one or both of these things, skip that ingredient.